Easy access to welfare is over: Andrews

Australians who receive the disability support pension will be assessed for the capacity to work. Source: AAP

UP to 20,000 Australians who receive the disability support pension (DSP) will be assessed for the capacity to work, and if deemed able, will be expected to get a job.

In tough talk ahead of the budget, Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews also repeated warnings that the days of young Australians sitting at home on the couch collecting welfare cheques were over.

He said the government believed young people should be either be working or training for work.

"The message out of this is simply this. The days of easy welfare for young people are over. We want a fair system but we don't think it is fair that young people can just sit on the couch at home and pick up a welfare cheque. Those days are over," he told reporters in Melbourne.

Mr Andrews confirmed the budget, to be delivered on Tuesday night, will introduce rules that mean some people collecting the DSP disability support pension will be reviewed for capacity to work.

That will apply to some 10-20,000 people who had gone onto the DSP in the last 5-6 years but not yet assessed under new impairment tables.

"If they are capable of working, whether it is full-time or part-time, then our expectation is that they should be working," he said.

Mr Andrews said measures announced on Tuesday would be just the first instalment of reform.

He said former Mission Australia chief executive Patrick McClure had completed his discussion paper on welfare reforms but would review it in light of budget changes.

The review will be released for public consultation after the budget.

"I will be taking to cabinet further proposals for welfare review. This will go to the structural arrangements," Mr Andrews said.

Mr Andrews said the welfare system now comprised some 50 payments, allowances and supplements assembled ad hoc over the years.

"It is time to have a clear look at making structural change so far as welfare is concerned," he said.

Proposed changes are in line with the report of the National Commission of Audit which said the DSP was costing $15.8 billion a year.

Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King was critical of the changes to the DSP.

"Why would you be punishing them? Why would you be punishing their income security payments and trying to restrict their access to income support whilst at the same time cutting a whole lot of benefits that support them into work," she told reporters in Melbourne.

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Four arrested over train station stabbing

An 18-year-old man is in hospital after he was stabbed at a railway station south of Sydney. Source: AAP

THREE men and a teenage girl have been arrested after a stabbing at a NSW train station.

Policy say an 18-year-old man was found with a stab wound to his back at Sutherland Railway Station early on Saturday.

He was taken to St George Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Three men, 19, 23 and 26, and a 17-year-old girl were arrested less than an hour later at Engadine.

Police are questioning them at Sutherland Police Station.

Police are still searching for a fifth man thought to be linked to the stabbing.

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PM pays tribute to beef baron Graeme Acton

Australian beef baron Graeme Acton has died aged 63, after falling from a horse. Source: AAP

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has paid tribute to Australian beef baron Graeme Acton, describing him as a great and proud man.

"He was a proud Queenslander and a great Australian," Mr Abbott said in a statement following news of Mr Acton's death on Friday in Brisbane.

"Graeme contributed so much to agriculture in our country, in particular to the cattle industry around Rockhampton where the Actons have been farming for four generations."

Mr Acton, 63, had been on life support in the Royal Brisbane Hospital after falling from a horse on May 2 while competing in a campdrafting event in central Queensland.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said he was shocked and saddened.

"He was an outstanding character who was much loved by all," he said in a statement.

"A hard working Queenslander, he devoted his life to the land and growing the cattle industry in this state."

Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said Mr Acton was a hero of the cattle industry and a fierce advocate for agriculture.

"We are truly indebted to this great Australian, for the blessing he has been as a father, husband, friend, pioneer and great captain of the agricultural industry in Australia," he said.

Just last week Mr Acton had told Mr Joyce how the government could do things better.

"His words of wisdom were not lost on me," Mr Joyce said.

"Graeme possessed a unique ability to communicate with people irrespective of their background or social standing and united tens of thousands through his love of the art form of campdrafting."

Mr Acton headed Acton Land and Cattle - one of the country's largest farming operations.

The firm owns 180,000 head of cattle on seven Queensland farms which span about 1.58 million hectares of land.

Acton Land and Cattle exports 30,000 beasts to the Middle East and Asia each year.

Mr Acton is survived by his wife Jennie and their children Tom, Hayley, Victoria and Laura.

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Pair die in fatal Qld car crash

Two people have been killed after their car hit a tree in a Gold Coast suburb. Source: AAP

TWO people have been killed after their car hit a tree in a Gold Coast suburb.

The driver, a 27-year-old Darra man, and a 26-year-old Fortitude Valley woman were travelling along a road in Nerang just before 12.30am when their vehicle collided with a tree.

Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

It is believed an incident involving a 4WD occurred 15km from the crash scene with the driver of a black Subaru Forester breath tested, a police spokeswoman said.

The Forensic Crash Unit is investigating.

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SA man burned as car engulfed in flames

A man has suffered serious burns when his car caught fire on Adelaide's Northern Expressway. Source: AAP

A MAN has been pulled from his burning car on an Adelaide expressway.

Emergency crews pulled the man from his car at Virginia after it caught fire while travelling on the Northern Expressway, SA police say.

He suffered serious burns and was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The car was badly damaged.

Fire cause investigators will examine the car.

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Chelsea Clinton collects Oxford doctorate

FORMER US president Bill Clinton says he "couldn't be prouder" of his daughter after attending her doctorate graduation ceremony at Oxford University.

Chelsea Clinton, who is pregnant with her first child, was accompanied at the Saturday ceremony by her father and mother, Hillary, as well as her husband Marc Mezvinsky.

The 34-year-old, who works as a journalist, was presented with her doctorate degree in international relations at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.

Her father posted on Twitter: "Couldn't be prouder of @ChelseaClinton today. Congrats on your doctorate."

He also posted a photograph of the four of them together, including his daughter in her graduation robes and holding her degree.

Ms Clinton previously completed an MPhil in the same subject at Oxford in 2003 having completed a BA in history at Stanford in the US.

Her father, who gained a Rhodes scholarship, also studied at Oxford from 1968 to 1970.

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German art collector Gurlitt dies

CORNELIUS Gurlitt, the German art collector at the centre of a Nazi stolen art scandal, has died at age 81.

Gurlitt's spokesman, Stephan Holzinger, said that the collector died on Tuesday morning at his apartment in Munich, where he had returned after major heart surgery.

Gurlitt was thrust into the public spotlight in November when authorities, following a report by German magazine Focus, disclosed that they had seized more than 1400 items - among them 1280 works by artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall - from the Munich apartment more than a year earlier.

They had discovered the works while investigating a tax case.

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Jordanian actor dies in death scene

A JORDANIAN actor has reportedly died while filming a death scene for a TV soap opera, Arabic media have reported.

Mahmoud al-Sawalqa died on the set of the soap opera Blood Brothers, in front of actor Mundhir Rihane, who was playing his son, Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm reported on Tuesday.

Rihane was in a state of shock after the death on Saturday, the report said, quoting a statement from his office.

In a telephone interview with Egypt's CBC television, Rihane recounted the tragic event.

"He said, 'Son, I think I'm really going to die'. I said, 'You're joking'. He said, 'I think I'm really going to die'. I said, 'no, no, no, you're joking'," Rihane told the broadcaster.

"And at the moment that we were filming the scene, he was dying... the angel of death was there with me."

Al-Sawalqa was reportedly a well-known actor in Jordanian television serials.

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Pistorius introduced Steenkamp as fiancee

A neighbour has testified that Oscar Pistorius was "torn apart" after shooting his girlfriend. Source: AAP

OSCAR Pistorius introduced Reeva Steenkamp as his fiancee just a week before he shot her, a neighbour has testified, as the defence said it may close its case within a week.

Defence lawyer Barry Roux said on Tuesday that he could deliver his closing arguments within a week, potentially brining to an end a trial which began on March 3 and was originally slated to run for three weeks.

The prosecution closed its case only on March 25.

"I even believe we may end the defence case by Tuesday next week," Roux told the court.

On Tuesday, testimony returned to the shouts and loud bangs that woke up neighbours in the pre-dawn hours that day.

The sequence of events, and who actually cried out, are key to establishing what happened on February 14, 2013.

Next-door neighbour Michael Nhlengethwa said that Pistorius had introduced the 29-year-old model as his wife-to-be, apparently supporting the athlete's claim he was in a serious and loving relationship.

Pistorius said "please meet my fiancee, Reeva," Nhlengethwa testified.

The Paralympic and Olympic athlete, nicknamed the "Blade Runner", is accused of shooting Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day 2013 after a row, a charge he denies.

In emotional testimony Nhlengethwa, Pistorius's closest neighbour, described going to the sprinter's home to investigate sounds of crying and saw Steenkamp being taken out of the house on a stretcher.

"At that moment I knew she was no more," he said.

Earlier, he had woken up to a man's cries.

"A man was crying very loud," he said, "it was crying when you were in danger, when you need help."

Roux asked the witness if the voice was low - or high-pitched.

"You said a man's voice, was it a low pitch?" asked Roux.

"It was a very high pitch voice," replied Nhlengethwa.

The defence claims that Steenkamp never screamed the night she was shot, alleging witnesses heard Pistorius screaming like a woman under the effect of stress.

The sprinter fired four bullets through a locked lavatory door, killing Steenkamp who was in the cubicle inside his house in the capital Pretoria.

Nhlengethwa's wife, Eontle, said she woke up after hearing a "bang" in the night, followed by a man crying and shouting "help, help, help!"

"Is it possible you could make a sound to resemble it?" said Roux.

She then made a haunting, shrill wail from the witness stand.

Pistorius, who has retched and sobbed in court, kept his head in his hands as he listened to his neighbours' testimony.

He faces up to 25 years in prison if found guilty of premeditated murder.

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PM's call puts Aust-Indon ties on track

A group of 20 asylum seekers claim they were turned back to Indonesia by Australian authorities. Source: AAP

INDONESIA'S president has told Prime Minister Tony Abbott he hopes the two countries can heal the rift left by last year's spying scandal by August.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's optimism came even as Australia sent a boatload of asylum seekers back to Indonesian territory with a new tactic that has added to Jakarta's concern over the border protection policy.

Dr Yuhoyono's office says he received a call from Mr Abbott on Tuesday afternoon, in which the prime minister conveyed his regret for having to miss a Bali forum, where the two were set to meet.

"President SBY stated that he could understand the reason for PM Abbott not attending in Bali regarding the discussion of budget in the parliament," the statement read.

The leaders discussed progress in the negotiations for a new code of conduct after revelations in 2013 that Australia had tapped the president's phone, his office says.

"President SBY stated that it is his hope for a code of conduct to have been agreed on at least by August 2014."

According to the statement, the leaders also set tentative dates to meet face-to-face.

Dr Yudhoyono welcomed Mr Abbott's suggestion he visit in June, and the president was invited to view the Indonesia-Australia Centre in Melbourne either during his remaining time in office or after.

Mr Abbott's office confirmed the warm exchange.

"In a very cordial conversation, both leaders agreed on the importance of the bilateral relationship between Australia and Indonesia," a spokesman said.

"They committed to continue the progress that has been made to resolve current issues and to strengthen the relationship further."

When Mr Abbott postponed his Bali trip, it seemed to dash hopes of a breakthrough in the talks with Indonesia, which made the new code a precondition to lifting a temporary ban on people smuggling and other co-operation.

But Dr Yudhoyono, who has always taken pride in close relations with Australia, is likely motivated by his term ending this year.

The government said Mr Abbott was forced to remain in Australia due to the coming budget.

But it was believed the trip was canned because Australia was in the process of turning back asylum seekers.

Indonesian navy officers found a group of 20 stranded on an island on Sunday, and claim they were originally on two separate boats.

One boat carrying 18 asylum seekers - first reported as Indian and Nepalese, but now believed to be Iranian and Nepalese - was met by two Australian vessels near Ashmore Reef on Sunday.

Indonesian officials believe three more people - an Indonesian and two asylum seekers from either Nepal or Albania - were intercepted in a second boat and then added to the first.

"There were two boats," the spokesman for Indonesia's Co-ordinating Ministry for Politics, Law and Security, Agus Barnas, told AAP.

"The bigger one left from Makassar and the smaller one left from Rote Island. The smaller one then caught by Australia, then the boat was burnt."

Then, Mr Barnas said, the larger boat was intercepted and all were sent back in it.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, said it was worrying.

"If confirmed, obviously this is a very serious development," he told reporters in Bali on Tuesday.

"As I've said from the very beginning, we are risking a slippery slope."

Further, it showed Operation Sovereign Borders wasn't working.

"The policy of his government to push, unilaterally forcing asylum seekers - which is threatening and violating their human rights - it's not yielding (success) because such efforts are still being conducted," Dr Natalegawa said.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison wouldn't comment on "on-water" matters for "operational security reasons".

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UK man given vasectomy by mistake

A MAN has been mistakenly given a vasectomy by medics who were supposed to be performing a "minor procedure" on him, a UK hospital has admitted.

The patient, who was not named, went to the Royal Liverpool Hospital for a minor urological operation but was wrongly made sterile by a blundering surgeon.

Medics tried to reverse the error but it is not known whether the reversal was successful.

Health bosses at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust said they have apologised "unreservedly" to the patient.

They said an internal investigation into the incident has been launched and the responsible surgeon has been suspended from carrying out operations pending the result.

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US circus acrobats remain in hospital

EIGHT circus acrobats remain hospitalised in the US after an accident during a hair-hanging stunt sent them plummeting to the ground.

Rhode Island Hospital officials said on Tuesday that four of the women are in serious condition and four are in good condition.

The accident happened on Sunday during a performance of the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey circus in the state.

Relatives and rescuers say the women suffered injuries including a pierced liver, neck and back fractures, broken ankles and head injuries when they fell up to 12 metres.

Investigators suspect a snapped clip, which they found broken in three pieces on the ground, is to blame.

The carabiner clip was one of several pieces at the top of a chandelier-like apparatus that suspended the performers.

The circus is replacing every carabiner in the show before the next performance, on Thursday in Connecticut.

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Number of children in Japan falls again

THE number of children in Japan has fallen for the 33rd-consecutive year to 16.33 million as of April 1.

It's down 0.1 per cent from the same time a year earlier, the government says, as it struggles to raise the declining birth rate.

The number of those aged 14 and under was the lowest since the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications started compiling such data in 1950.

Children in Japan constituted 12.8 per cent of the population, the lowest percentage among 30 countries with populations of at least 40 million, the ministry said on Sunday.

In 1950, children made up 35.4 per cent of the country's population.

The ministry's report was released ahead of the Children's Day national holiday on Monday.

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18 dead in India train accident

A passenger train has derailed in western India, killing at least eight people and injuring 57. Source: AAP

A PASSENGER train has derailed in western India, killing at least 18 people and injuring more than 100 as rescue workers race to free those still trapped.

The train's engine and four of its carriages jumped the tracks in the western state of Maharashtra 110 kilometres south of Mumbai, police control room official Ramchandra Kamre told reporters on Sunday in Raigad district, where the accident occurred.

"So far we have 18 reported deaths and 112 injured, who have been rushed to nearby hospitals for treatment," Kamre said.

Rescuers were trying to pull out passengers still trapped in overturned carriages, with cranes and teams of workers at the site.

Railways Minister Mallikarjun Kharge ordered an investigation into the accident, which occurred in the mid-morning as the train was travelling from Diwa on the outskirts of Mumbai to the city of Sawantwadi in Maharashtra.

India's underfunded rail network - one of the world's largest - has a notoriously bad safety record but remains the main form of long-distance travel in the huge country despite fierce competition from private airlines.

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Firefighter bravery recognised

NSW firefighters have been awarded for their actions at a major fuel spill that threatened Sydney. Source: AAP

FIREFIGHTERS who attended a fuel spill with the potential to ignite and threaten a Sydney peninsula faced a choice.

Leave the two million litre tank to leak, evacuate the peninsula around Banksmeadow on Botany Bay and wait for a catastrophic explosion.

Or volunteer to wade through the fuel pool and repair the leaking valve.

NSW Fire and Rescue (NSWFR) station officer Ron Morasso looked at his colleagues and made his choice.

"I said to him, 'what was going through your mind'?" NSWFR commissioner Greg Mullins told AAP after presenting Mr Morasso with the fire service's highest bravery award.

"[Mr Morasso] said to me, 'I looked at my crew and thought - he has two young kids, his wife is pregnant, he is only young...it's got to be me'."

Mr Mullins said even a spark from a car passing the Caltex fuel terminal would have risked an explosion with enough ferocity to close Sydney airport and any subsequent fire might have taken days to extinguish.

Mr Morasso, who has since retired, was presented with the NSWFR medal for conspicuous bravery on Saturday.

Other crew members who responded to the spill in July 2013 also received commendations.

Meanwhile, two firefighters who rushed to the aid of a man on fire after a petrol tanker crash on Sydney's northern beaches were also recognised.

Mosman crew members Lloyd Mulder and George Cheeke stayed with the man, who crawled from his car after it burst into flames, until he died at the roadside last October.

Witnesses Andrew Cochran and Maria Tosone also received commendations for trying to pull the man and another person from the car on Mona Vale Road.

And 12 firefighters who responded to a fire at a unit complex in Bankstown in the city's west, where two women attempted to escape by jumping from a fifth floor window, were also among commendation recipients.

Mr Mullins said the blaze was so intense that firefighters' uniforms caught fire and helmets melted.

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Cancer tot’s siblings shame adults

Diagnosed with cancer when aged two ... Nicholas Forwood with sister Charlotte, 10, and brother Luke, 12. Source: News Corp Australia

THREE-year-old Nicholas Forwood's cancer treatment left him so radioactive he had to be isolated in a lead-lined room and his carers had to wear Geiger counters when treating him.

The toddler, from Turramurra in Sydney, has spent most of the last 11 months in hospital battling the killer childhood cancer neuroblastoma and his bravery has inspired his siblings to raise $90,000 for medical research.

Nicholas' ten-year-old sister Charlotte and his 12-year-old brother Luke are aiming to raise $120,000 to pay for the clinical trial of a promising new treatment for neuroblastoma being developed by Australian company Novogen but it may come too late for Nicholas.

Doctors say there is just a one-in-five chance Nicholas will be alive in a year's time when trials of the drug begin.

This week he begins a painful experimental immunotherapy treatment his parents hope will send his cancer into remission but it carries a rare risk it could stop his heart, liver and kidneys working and leave him blind.

NOVOGEN CHIEF: Cancer treatment drug will be affordable

Beginning a painful experimental immunotherapy treatment ... Nicholas Forwood's parents hope it will send his cancer into remission. Source: News Corp Australia

Nicholas' father Tom Forwood said by the time doctors diagnosed his cancer in May last year it was a stage-four high-risk disease that had spread throughout his body.

He had five cycles of chemotherapy and surgery to remove a large tumour from his abdomen but the cancer was still there.

In late January doctors injected Nicholas with a chemical called MIBG and high-dose radioactive iodine in an attempt to track down remaining cancer cells and burn them away.

The treatment left Nicholas so radioactive he was dangerous to others.

"He was too toxic to be exposed to anyone, he was put in a lead-lined room for five days and ICU nurses were only allowed brief visits and they had to have Geiger counters on them," Tom Forwood says.

Another harrowing high-dose chemotherapy treatment followed that left Nicholas with ulcers through his mouth and internal organs. He was so sore he did not open his mouth for weeks.

When he is not in hospital Nicholas runs and plays and laughs like any three year old.

Tom Forwood says the frustration of watching his little boy endure so much often makes him angry at the world but the way his other children are striving to raise funds for the Kids Cancer Project teaches adults how they should behave.

"I get angry at the world, they are trying to change things," he said.

Luke, Charlotte and Tom Forwood and nine of Mr Forwood's friends and colleagues shaved their heads to raise over $90,000 for the clinical trial of a new neuroblastoma therapy in the last few months.

Charlotte wants to push the donations to $120 000 because that is the most a single family would have ever raised for the Kids Cancer Project.

"We're not doing this for Nicholas, we're trying to get these funds in his honour," says Mr Forwood.

Today, a new research alliance called the Child Oncology Drug Alliance will be launched in Sydney combining the Kids Cancer Project, University of NSW, NewSouth Innovations and Novogen to fast track the development of the new anti-cancer medicine anti-tropomysin pioneered by Australian researchers.

"The Holy Grail of childhood cancer therapy is a medicine that is effective against a tumour such as neuroblastoma, but doesn't leave the sort of damage that the child then has to deal with for the rest of their life," says Novogen chief Graham Kelly.

"We believe the anti-tropomyosins we have developed have the potency, selectivity and safety profile to meet the special needs of children."

You can make a donation to Luke and Charlotte's fundraiser by going to https://give.everydayhero.com/au/luke-charlotte-forwood

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Male survival gene under threat in UK

MANKIND has come a long way since the days of hunters and gatherers - but the modern British man's survival gene could be in danger of becoming extinct.

According to a new television survey, ready meals and toiletries are the luxuries more than a quarter of UK men couldn't live without on a remote island, above taking a hunting knife or fishing line.

Some 26 per cent named toiletries as a must-have item and 29 per cent said they couldn't do without their pre-prepared tucker, the Channel 4 survey of 2000 British men found.

And 62 per cent said they wouldn't be able to start a fire without the aid of a lighter - so they may have trouble heating up their TV dinner anyway.

When asked to rate their practical DIY skills, Welsh men were the least-educated in the UK, with 83 per cent claiming they were never taught the skills.

The survey found just one in 10 spend their spare time playing sport, only nine per cent pursue outdoor activities and 15 per cent tend to their house or car.

The top recreation was lazing around and watching TV, with more than a third admitting to spending their free time in this way.

The survey findings come as Channel 4 launches the five-part series, The Island with Bear Grylls, featuring the real-life experiences of a group of men struggling to survive on a remote island.

Grylls said: "What happens when you strip man of all the luxury and conveniences of modern living and then force them to fight for their very existence?

"When pushed to the extreme do they still have what it takes to survive? I believe the spirit is still there and in us all.

"It's not until it's squeezed and put under pressure that we find that spirit of resourcefulness and courage again."

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Focus turns to Afghan landslide families

AS Afghans observe a day of mourning for the hundreds of people killed in a horrific landslide, authorities are trying to help the 700 families displaced by the torrent of mud that swept through their village.

The families left their homes due to the threat of more landslides in the village of Abi Barik in Badakhshan province, Minister for Rural Rehabilitation Wais Ahmad Barmak said on Sunday.

Aid groups and the government have rushed to the remote area in northeastern Afghanistan bordering Tajikistan and China with food, shelter and water.

A spokesman for the International Organisation of Migration, Matt Graydon, said the group is bringing solar-powered lanterns, blankets and shelter kits.

He said after a visit to the area on Sunday that some residents have gone to nearby villages to stay with family or friends while others have slept out in the open.

"Some people left with almost nothing," Graydon said.

Authorities gave $US400,000 ($A432,700) to the provincial governor on Saturday to use in the aid effort, said Barmak, who promised the government would provide more money if it's needed.

President Hamid Karzai designated Sunday as a day of mourning for the hundreds of people who died in Abi Barik when a wall of mud and earth broke off from the hill above and turned part of the village into a cemetery.

Authorities still don't have an exact figure on how many people died in the landslide.

Estimates have ranged from 250 to 2700, but authorities say it will be impossible to dig up all the bodies.

The government has identified 250 people who died and estimated that 300 houses were buried under tons of mud, Barmak said.

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